STATE OF ORIGIN
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MITCH JENNINGS
Queensland 11 NSW 10
NSW coach Laurie Daley has promised to stick with halves Trent Hodkinson and Mitchell Pearce for Origin II despite the pair's late yips in the Blues 11-10 loss to Queensland on Wednesday night.
Daley's decision to gamble on the new halves pairing looked to have paid dividends early with the pair combining for nearly 500 kick metres in the first half and providing a steadying hand with the ball. However lapses in the second half - including a dropped ball from Pearce and Hodkinson's failure to find touch from a penalty - proved costly. More crucially they squandered a chance to attempt a go-ahead field goal with the scores locked at 10-all with nine minutes to play.
Instead the ball ended up in the hands of Michael Jennings who grubbered the ball dead, handing Queensland seven-tackle set that finished with Cronk's match-winning shot. The Blues blew another chance with just three minutes left when an unsuspecting Josh Dugan was given the taske of attempting a leveller which went wide.
The halves are sure to bear the brunt of criticism after the loss, particularly after thier forwards clearly won the battle up front, but Daley backed the pair post-match.
"They will be there for game two...there's your headline," Daley said.
"I thought they were terrific. I thougth they really combined well. Mitch played with control and Hodko did the job that we wanted him to do
"I think because we weren't down there enough I think we thought let's go for try and see if we can score. In the heat of battle under fatigue which our guys were...we've got to be a little bit better."
In contrast Maroons big guns Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk showed all the composure that marked their eight-year reign of Origin supremacy with man-of-the-match Smith kicking his side back into the match in the second half after tries to Josh Morris and Beau Scott saw them trail 10-6 at halftime.
The opening try to Cronk and the match-leveller midway through the second half to Will Chambers saw all 11 Queensland poinst scored by Storm players.
Smith said post-match that the Maroons brains trust sensed an opportunity after Jennings' kick went dead.
"As soon as that ball went dead myself, Cooper JT said if we get the opportunity we're going to take the one point," Smith said.
"We played really controlled there when we needed to and [Cronk] has slotted a few when we needed them over the last few years for Queensland and Melbourne. He struck that one nicely and he struck it when it counted.
"It went through my mind as that last play was unfolding. I was thinking they were going to take a shot but they didn't. They probably went with the 50-50 shot with the ball on the last and try tos core points. They still had a shot, Duges had a shot and missed, so I was grateful to get away with it in the end."